Good Idea or Bad? Looking at various sci fi and fantasy television projects currently in the works and pondering whether it will fly or crash.
What Is the Show About? Sony Pictures Television is partnering with Condé Nast Entertainment to produce a television series based on the pulp hero Doc Savage. Deadline Hollywood gives the follow description for the project:
The scripted series will chronicle his adventures, featuring rampaging dinosaurs, secret societies led by dastardly villains, fantastic gadgets and weapons, death-dealing traps, hair-raising escapes, and plots to rule the earth.
Doc Savage is a classic action/adventure pulp hero first introduced by Street & Smith in the 1930’s and he would go on to appear in comics, radio serials, and also on the big screen. Savage is a renaissance man who is a highly skilled scientist, adventurer, detective, inventor, explorer, doctor and more. He has also honed his physical abilities to near superhuman levels. He is often accompanied in his adventures by the “Fabulous Five” who are each highly skilled in their respective professions.
What Is in the Works? Sony has acquired the rights to the property and was previously working on a feature film that would have starred Dwayne Johnson. Those plans were put on hold and now a television series is being ramped up. This project is early in the development process with no premiere date targeted at the moment and no network currently attached.
Good Idea or Bad? Not only is this a good idea, it is an excellent idea that needs to happen! Doc Savage has plenty of source material to draw on across the pulps and novels as well as some of the comic book adaptations. This would be best as a retro-sci fi series that draws heavily on the spirit of the adventure tales from the 30’s and 40’s (which sounds like the direction they will take based on the synopsis above), but there are any of a number of ways to approach the property.
A dark re-imaging would probably not be the best way to go, because we have more than enough of that among the current crop of sci fi TV entries. But if done right, it could still work. Doc Savage brings name-recognition and plenty of backstory, and the show could carry on for years without running out of steam if they handle it correctly. This is a show that I am truly excited about and will definitely be checking out once it finally arrives on television.
Notable Facts: The character, who is also known as The Man of Bronze, first appeared in Doc Savage Magazine #1 which was published by Street & Smith and had a cover date of March 1933. That pulp ran for 181 issues and the stories were later be collected in a series of novels that Bantam Books started releasing in the 1960’s. Doc Savage Comics debuted in 1940, though that version of the character would start to diverge notably from the pulp hero. The feature film Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze was released in 1975, produced by George Pal and starring Ron Ely. The character would continue in comics starting with a Marvel series in the 1970’s and later shifting to DC, Dark Horse, and Dynamite. The “Fabulous Five” consists of Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett “Monk” Mayfair (industrial chemist), Brigadier General Theodore Marley “Ham” Brooks (attorney), Colonel John “Renny” Renwick (construction engineer), Major Thomas J. “Long Tom” Roberts (electrical engineer), and William Harper “Johnny” Littlejohn (archaeologist / geologist).
Do you think that a Doc Savage TV series would be a good idea or bad? Chime in with your thoughts in the comments.
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I think it would be best to either set the show in the 1930’s rather than reboot him as a modern person born recently.
If you must put him in the present day then you must Captain America him and have him revived after being trapped in ice, fallen through a time machine, etc etc etc. Fish out of water with yet another goody too shoes hero could work. Some might say him being alone with all of his team dead would allow for him to rebuild a team, but to put much of the focus on him because people would need to know him. Perhaps the Avenger could be brought back as well. His abilities might have indicated longevity so he could occasionally cross paths with someone who knew him back in the day.
I also think cartoon / animation is the way to go. Its way cheaper, and you could do crazier special effects. I would suggest TV cartoon for a season on two then wait a few years for those kids to mature, then kick out a few animated movies and from there ………………….?????
Fantastic continuation of the genre – original pulps, Bantam reprints, movie, radio drama, more reprints, new novels, and now a TV series!
I would love to see a Doc Savage TV show, movie, animated series or basically ANYTHING but I’m not going to hold my breath! I’ve seen reports for DECADES about a new movie and nothing ever happens. With the politically correct climate in America I think a true or even adequate version of Doc Savage would be almost impossible without making him a very diluted version of the real thing.
How about a high quality, well scripted ANIMATED SERIES?
That would be a good way to go with the property.
Is there an update on this, or is it dead?
Anything Doc would be GREAT!! (As long as they stick to the original material and settings).
Hmmm… maybe a computer generated series.
There has been no update on this in several years. Between the COVID production delays and the writers’/actors’ strikes, it appears to have slipped into development limbo.
i agree this is probably the best option. most folks don’t know much about Doc and his team
doc savage (and most of the other popular characters of the 20’s-50’s) would be excellent material for a weekly series.
i’d even like to see something where multiple heroes all had a part. imagine doc working with the shadow or charlie chan or the avenger. there’s so much potential to do a large-scale storyline that i’m shocked it hasn’t been scooped up by a studio already.
i’ve read everything doc savage was in, and much of the avenger and other heroes of the times. they were not just heroes, but also role models.
I think this is the BEST idea for a TV show I’ve heard in decades. I grew up with Doc Savage and there aren’t ANY characters around today that can equal him. Instead of endlessly remaking the same shows why don’t they do a show about the FIRST hero of them all faithfully. There would be nothing like him on TV or in the movies if they did it accurately.
grew up on doc savage books and owned every book published including the ones done by will murray the first one I read was the thousand headed man and I was hooked. I still go back and reread these books. I have been looking forward to a good movie or series about this not the poor movie down with ron ely as doc and the characters depicted as the fabulous five did not do justice to the series. Hopefully the characters they pick for the series matches the characters as close to the descriptions in the books.
It is a great idea. However, don’t get hung up on keeping “old” old fans like me happy. Insisting on being completely canon will destroy it before it ever gets going.
Let’s hope this is a MUST TV series concept. Doc has always been one of my all-time heroes of pulp fiction and I’m sure it would appeal, if done justice, to young and old. This is definitely the stuff that dreams are made of . . .
No moderation.
I think it would be a fantastic idea. WIth 181 books to choose from they would have years of material to choose from if it’s done seriously and not like the 1970s movie. If done correctly it could give people a real Hero to watch, something we really need right now!
This is definitely a good idea, as long as they are faithful to the source material and don’t recreate the horrible film adaption and generally poor (and short-lived) comic books. I started reading the Bantam reprints as a kid in the late 60’s, and had never been more disappointed with a movie adaptation than I was with that George Pal abomination. Of course, comic book adaptations were also generally poor in those days (the first half of “Superman” aside), so maybe modern sensibilities will do a better job. Fingers crossed.
I think it is VERY good idea